It only took five months for Uber to get me excited about its presence in Milwaukee. I signed up for the app when the service launched in Milwaukee in February, but I was always too skeptical or just never needed a lift from a pricey private driver.

But today, Uber gave me an offer I couldn't refuse: Pricey ice cream delivered to my doorstep. At 2 p.m. on a Friday, who can say no to a private ice cream truck rolling up to the workplace? | July 18, 2014»Read Full Blog Post

The Novel: A Biography. By Michael Schmidt. Harvard University Press. 1,200 pages. $39.95.

Michael Schmidt's massive new book, "The Novel: A Biography," covers nearly 700 years of prose and hundreds of writers. At 1,200 pages, it is much longer than "Moby-Dick" and nearly as long as "War and Peace." Although it's not necessarily the last word on any given novel, as a resource, reference and stimulator, it's a bargain and a worthy addition to your home library.

While Schmidt, born in Mexico, has long been a professor in the United Kingdom, his approach is not academic. He writes for common readers, to borrow Virginia Woolf's phrase, though he must know they'll have to do some work to keep up with him. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

I wouldn't go that far, but it's nevertheless true that Hitchcock's more conventional film flattened Hamilton's story about two wealthy and gay Oxford undergraduates who strangle a classmate for kicks. They then stuff the victim's body in a trunk — which becomes a food-laden table for a party whose guests include the victim's father (Lawrence J. Lukasavage) and aunt (Sandy Lewis). | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

My Family and Other Hazards: A Memoir. By June Melby. Henry Holt. 320 pages. $25.

Miniature golf may have been a vacation diversion for you and me, but for June Melby, the Tom Thumb Miniature Golf course outside Waupaca was the crucible where she was formed.

When Melby was 10, her schoolteacher parents bought the course to run as their summer source of income (though it first played the role of a money pit). That meant middle child June, older sister LeAnn and younger sister Carly were immediately impressed into service as deckhands on this voyage. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

Land of Love and Drowning. By Tiphanie Yanique. Riverhead. 358 pages. $27.95.

"Nowadays people think historians are stuffy types, but history is a kind of magic I doing here."

So says Anette, the most compelling of the characters populating "Land of Love and Drowning" by Virgin Islands native Tiphanie Yanique. A multigenerational novel set in Yanique's native land, "Love and Drowning" opens just before the U.S. arrives, after purchasing several of the islands from Denmark in 1917. It concludes in the 1970s. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

The broad smile on the face of Jerry Holmes says everything. He is happy, and the job he has at Biltrite Furniture is clearly built right for him. For the past five years, Holmes has worked part time as a custodian at the local furniture manufacturing firm where he empties trash, cleans the kitchen and sweeps floors. It is a job he says he likes a lot.

And the Komisar family that owns Biltrite clearly thinks a lot of him — enough to bring nearly 40 family members and employees to the Grand Avenue Club's annual dinner where Holmes was recognized along with his employer. He was at the dinner, held June 26 at the Pfister Hotel, with his sister and brother-in-law Louisa and Fared Madinah. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

The former owner of Christopher’s on Astor in Milwaukee quietly opened an Italian restaurant in Brookfield in November called Pizza Vino, and now he’s preparing to expand the menu.

Christopher Fortune said his Brookfield restaurant is geared toward families, serving pizzas, appetizers and salads. He makes items like the crust, sausage and sauce from scratch; for the Friday fish fry, he makes the coleslaw, tartar sauce and rye bread. The fish fry ($11.95 for cod, $14.95 for pan-fried lake perch and $11.95 for baked cod) includes a relish tray. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(1)

The “Listening to Mitchell” temporary public art project runs from the Modjeska Theatre to St. Stanislaus Church. Audio pieces can be heard by calling the number on the marquee.

Historic Mitchell Street was called "a street of modern stores," a thoroughfare where "every crosstown car" (meaning street cars) seemed to converge, according to a 1931 Milwaukee Sentinel feature about the near south side district.

For a time, the street, surrounded by Polish flats, competed with Wisconsin Ave. for shopping at department stores like Goldmann's and Schuster's and was called the "Polish Grand Avenue." | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article(1)

The Best of Brew City is your mobile guide to going out in Milwaukee. Locate events, live music, bars and restaurants near you and in Milwaukee's most popular neighborhoods. Visit bestofbrewcity.com and download the app for iOS or Android today.

Lincoln Park Golf Course, 1000 W. Hampton Ave., hosts the 2014 Milwaukee FootGolf Open — a tournament combining soccer and golf, with a national organization, a dress code (polo shirt, shorts, driver's cap, argyle socks, turf or indoor shoes) and everything — with start times at noon and 3 p.m. Saturday. Lincoln Park's course is the region's only 18-hole FootGolf course; there's also a 9-hole course at Doyne Park. Spectators can check out the action — and get in on the ground floor of the sport — for free. Players must purchase tickets — $50 and $75 per individual, with the latter including an MLS soccer ball — with foursomes getting a 10% discount. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

But — I wrote in a 2000 profile of Forsyth — people don't have to die for their presence to be missed. Forsyth, director of wry and subtle films like "Gregory's Girl" and "Local Hero," hasn't made a film since 1999. But the quirky humanity of those films lives on. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article

Lazy Susan in Bay View is one of those industrious restaurants, where much of the food is made from scratch and the menu changes frequently, incorporating strawberries at their peak, say, or incredibly sweet peaches when they come around. | July 18, 2014»Read Full Article